hawaii

Man, this is messed up. A power hungry chairman. A district that should vote him off the board. And an interim director that may (or may not, I don't know the person) be afraid to take a position. Please answer this. $3,000 cut per school. But how is the cut? $1,000 from football, basketball and baseball or what? Or just left up to the principal?

I don't live in Cheatham Co. but thought I would shed some light on this subject. Several years ago my principal came to me and asked me to coach a middle school sport. I said no thanks because I was already coaching one sport. She asked and asked and asked, then begged and begged saying she couldn't find anyone. I finally said yes. This is when they were having the "dog budget" up in Nashville and the horn blowers up against the income tax. I told my wife (we have four kids) that I would take the extra supplement and pay her car payment since she would have to pull the slack at home with the kids. When the job advertisement came out it read because of the uncertain budget problems in Nashville, the coaching position might be for no pay. I called the director and simply said, "no pay, no extra work". Would this have been fair to my wife to volunteer to deal with someone elses kids while she is dealing with ours? The next week the director called me back and said they raised the sales tax in Nashville and I would get my full pay. Many people will have you work for free if you agree to it.

Tn. has the lowest taxes in the nation (did y'all see the Tennessean article?), yet people scream about paying an extra $2 a month for the kids. But all school boards and directors need to show they aren't wasting money when they do a budget and not hire a bunch of supervisors making 60 thousand a year if it's not necessary. When the people (some, but not all) have confidence in their leaders, they are a little more receptive to a tax increase. Problem also is when a county commissioner absolutely wants a no tax increase because he values his job as commissioner more than he is willing on doing what is right for the community. Hey, if you don't want to pay any taxes, go live in the Sudan...they pay almost nothing a year.

how much does the new director make and where is he/she from? is the director to blame here or the county commission?

There is always optimism with new coaches. Now SCHS has a new field and a new school. People are excited in Stewart Co. I hope if/when the team loses a game, people won't say same ole Rebs. Coach Tabor worked hard and was a good guy. Now with these new coaches (there are three new guys on the staff and one returning guy) are creating enthusism. Look at Houston Co. in a 31-6 win over Waverly. Wow. If the coaches can keep the players they have and add a good crop of freshmen each year and stop having to play those private schools out of Nashville, the team can hopefully pull it all together.

IS CAMDEN JR. HIGH AS GOOD THIS YEAR AS IN YEAR'S PAST?

how does camden jr. high look this year?

what's camden jr. high looking like this year?

how did stewart county look?

what county is Independence in?

charging to park is not right. it's bad enough the tickets are so expensive to a high school game!

Good luck to the Rebs this season. It wasn't too long ago that Houston County and Northwest were down, but they turned it around last year. Maybe the Rebs can in a year or two, especially if they get out of the region with private school powers David Lib. and Goodpasture, who have advantages the Rebels just don't have. I think the new coach is just trying to spark some interest in not naming the Irish by name. Houston County is much like Stewart County. Things go one year at a time. However, Coach Busey is a fine person who got some wins last year and good for him. However, I hope the Rebs give the Irish a loss this year. But I hope the Irish can beat Waverly if they play!!!!

Bob Claren, who played a little in the old USFL, coached some at lewis county in the late 80s. Where is he now??

If memory serves me correct, the jr. high went 1-5 in 2001, then rebounded in 2002. They lost a close one to Camden then won five in a row before losing to Waverly in a bowl game to finish 5-2 on the year. Last year they went 3-3. That's not great, but that's fairly respectful. With a new middle school being built, maybe more enthusiam will be generated for middle school sports.

Is the staff complete? If so, who are they?

who are the running backs this year and how good are they?

the original coach from Nashville, the one that they hired in May, is the one that resigned. This guy from Ohio, they just hired him. I think he is still with the program. Then they got some guy from Chattanooga as an assistant and they are still looking for another assistant.

They got the guy from Ohio as the head coach and I heard they got a guy from Chattanooga to be an assistant.

Last year, Clarksville athletics were on the budget chopping block like Chattanooga is this year. Did Clarksville get their mess straightened out?

ELA, thanks for keeping us informed on what's going on. Does the new guy have much experience? I did not know Coach Tabor well, but I think most people liked him. I wish him well in his home state of Georgia. I hope the new guy has success and will stay here a while. I remember years ago a guy named Bob Claren took over Lewis County in the late 80's and they had several good years. What happened to Coach Claren?

how many assistants will they have this year?

did they get any assistant coaches yet?

The drive from Loretto to Dover is better than the drive to Nashville every year for the Dover team. Why? Because some intelligent person at the TSSAA always made small rural Stewart County play regional opponents Goodpasture and David Lipscomb, two of those private non-recruiting (cough, cough) schools.

As far as football going to the state playoffs, I don't think they have ever been. As far teams above .500, girls softball was 4-5 games over .500 this year.

This is just speculation from what I heard from a guy in Clarksville: This may be part of it: That his wife took a job in Nashville and that the drive for him (over an hour one way) wasn't worth it. One assistant moved out of state and the other got deployed to Iraq as an army reservist. Who knows? Now they don't have any football coaches at all.